At this year’s CES, cool gadgets are out, practical is in

By Benny Evangelista

Published
4:31 pm PST, Monday, January 4, 2016

FILE - In this January 2015 file photo, attendees sit in the self-driving Mercedes-Benz F 015 concept car at the Mercedes-Benz booth at the International CES, in Las Vegas. Everything we buy or use these days has the potential to be smarter. Self-driving cars can transform our commuting hours into productive time. Sensor-laden socks can let us know how to jog with fewer injuries. The 2016 International CES will have a panoply of vendors showing off such connected devices, from smart umbrellas that will notify you if you’ve left them behind, to navigation devices that project directions on car windshields so you don’t have to take your eyes off the road. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) less

FILE - In this January 2015 file photo, attendees sit in the self-driving Mercedes-Benz F 015 concept car at the Mercedes-Benz booth at the International CES, in Las Vegas. Everything we buy or use these days ... more

Photo: Jae C. Hong, Associated Press

Photo: Jae C. Hong, Associated Press

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FILE - In this January 2015 file photo, attendees sit in the self-driving Mercedes-Benz F 015 concept car at the Mercedes-Benz booth at the International CES, in Las Vegas. Everything we buy or use these days has the potential to be smarter. Self-driving cars can transform our commuting hours into productive time. Sensor-laden socks can let us know how to jog with fewer injuries. The 2016 International CES will have a panoply of vendors showing off such connected devices, from smart umbrellas that will notify you if you’ve left them behind, to navigation devices that project directions on car windshields so you don’t have to take your eyes off the road. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) less

FILE - In this January 2015 file photo, attendees sit in the self-driving Mercedes-Benz F 015 concept car at the Mercedes-Benz booth at the International CES, in Las Vegas. Everything we buy or use these days ... more

Photo: Jae C. Hong, Associated Press

At this year’s CES, cool gadgets are out, practical is in

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The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas — one of the world’s biggest annual tech showcases — has in recent years hyped cool, shiny new tech toys like sharper 3-D and 4K TV monitors, self-driving automobiles and bigger smartphones and tablets.

But analysts expect this year’s International CES, which starts Wednesday, to shift away from shiny gadgets, especially as consumer interest in smartphones, PCs and smart home devices slows down.

“When I think about CES, it’s always been about the glitz and the glamour of the new gadgets,” said John Curran of the professional services company Accenture.

This year, he said, “Say goodbye to cool and say hello to practical.”

The CES, sponsored by the newly renamed industry trade group Consumer Technology Association, last year drew more than 170,000 industry executives, analysts and journalists who view the four-day event as a harbinger for trends and gadgets that will shape consumer electronics for the year and beyond.

But Accenture released a survey Tuesday of 28,000 people in 28 countries and found “sluggish” demand for traditional consumer tech devices.

For example, about 48 percent of respondents said they planned to buy a smartphone this year, compared with 54 percent last year. And last year, 38 percent said they planned to buy a new TV or tablet computer. Those percentages dropped to 30 percent and 29 percent, respectively, this year, Accenture said.

Meanwhile, interest in last year’s most-hyped new tech device, the smartwatch, was barely gaining ground. Only 13 percent of respondents said they planned to buy a smartwatch, just one percentage point more than the previous year.

And only 9 percent said they wanted to buy one of a range of devices that fall into the Internet of Things category, which includes smart thermostats, wearable health monitors and home surveillance cameras.

Similarly, a recent study by Argus Insights showed growth in Internet of Things gadgets has also dropped off.

“The slowdown in the consumer technology market is irrefutable, serious and global,” Sami Luukkonen, global managing director for Accenture’s electronics and high tech practice, said in a press release. “The market is not about the glitzy gadgets anymore.”

So Curran, managing director with Accenture’s communications, media and technology group, said in an interview he expects the 2016 CES will present a sharp shift in emphasis away from design and aesthetics and toward the behind-the-scenes data and services that make the devices “more pragmatic and practical.”

“Wearables at last year’s CES was about the move to fashion,” he said. “This year, it’s going to be about the services that wearable enable.”

He said there are more than 150 health, wellness and fitness companies at the show pitching services that could, for example, take the raw data of daily steps tracked by a fitness device to show wearers specific actions they need to take to achieve a healthier lifestyle.

But the Accenture report also found that 47 percent of consumers said worries over privacy and security were barriers to them buying an Internet of Things device or service. And 69 percent said they were aware hackers could use those devices to steal their data or cause them to malfunction.

Some 24 percent of people planning to buy a smart device in the next year said they were postponing that purchase and 18 percent of owners said they stopped using them.

In light of those concerns, Curran noted last year’s CES saw the debut of a dedicated area for cyber and personal security companies. This year, there were already 82 companies signed up to exhibit.

Self-driving cars will continue to be among the most hyped future technologies at the show.

And major automakers are shifting gears to highlight “a lot more practical” gadgets that change the present driving experience, like avoiding collisions and carjacking, he said.

CES has become so important for the industry that two chief executives, Mary Barra of General Motors and Herbert Diess of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, are scheduled to give keynote addresses.

CES won’t be devoid of glitzy tech. There were nearly twice as many virtual and augmented reality companies expected this year compared with last year. The difference is that virtual reality device makers like the Facebook-owned Oculus VR plan to finally sell products to consumers this year. In fact, Oculus announced Monday the company will begin taking Oculus Rift orders on Wednesday morning.

“This certainly has the potential to excite consumers with entertainment and gaming,” Curran said. “We also see virtual reality going beyond that into education and health care.”